Kidd's magic stole the show

Jason Kidd will play for his second Olympic gold medal late tonight when Team USA plays Spain in Beijing.

Bob Highfill

Jason Kidd will play for his second Olympic gold medal late tonight when Team USA plays Spain in Beijing.

The 35-year-old Dallas Mavericks guard and former Cal standout is a future first-ballot NBA Hall of Famer.

With the myriad games he's played through the years, Kidd might be hard-pressed to remember March 8, 1989. But those on the St. Mary's High boys basketball team that season will not forget the dazzling performance the then-freshman at St. Joseph Notre Dame High of Alameda had against them in the first round of the Northern California playoffs before a packed crowd at Pacific's Spanos Center.

"He was the best high school freshman player we ever competed against," former St. Mary's coach Jon Gustorf said. "He was the huge deciding factor in the game."

Kidd scored 15 points and dished out numerous assists, including several to senior Calvin Byrd, a McDonald's All-American who scored 21 points in the Pilots' 62-58 victory over the Rams, snapping St. Mary's school-record 33-game winning streak.

"Kidd stole the show," said then-Rams starting center Glenn Griffin, who played at Pacific from 1991-94. "He did all the triple-double activity he's been known for over the years: Stealing, dribbling, scoring and passing."

The Rams went into the game with an unblemished record after winning the Sac-Joaquin Section championship. They had a balanced team that featured Griffin; sure-handling guard Ben Rishwain, who later played at Pacific; off-guard Matt Wallace; swingman Chris Rishwain; and high-scoring forward Jason Wilcox. They were the No. 1 seed and ranked No. 3 statewide. St. Joe's was the eighth seed after losing to El Camino in the North Coast Section final.

St. Mary's focused its game plan on containing Byrd, who later played at Villanova and was an assistant men's basketball coach at Pacific from 2001-05. And though Byrd played an outstanding game, scoring four points in the decisive final 51 seconds with two free throws and a dunk, Kidd left the deepest impression.

"It was Jason's coming-out game," Griffin said. "He took it over."

The only crimp in Kidd's game then at age 15 was his outside shooting, which still is the weakest part of his skill set. As true then as it is now, Kidd made up for his shooting deficiency with his ball-handling and on-court intelligence. The 1989 Rams prided themselves on pressure defense, but Kidd took away that weapon, repeatedly dribbling past the Rams' defenders.

"They handled our pressure, and he was a big part of that," said Trini Ruiz, a reserve guard and outside shooting specialist for the '89 Rams. "He was able to dribble-drive through us. I remember trying to catch him a couple times."

St. Joe's jumped out to an early lead and St. Mary's was unable to recover.

"They controlled the game and let us catch them," Gustorf said. "We never could quite get there."

The atmosphere that night at Spanos Center was as memorable as the game. St. Mary's student section was in full voice, forming a sea of green and white amid fans from throughout the community, who packed the 6,150-seat arena.

"It was an electric evening," Griffin said. "It was probably one of the biggest basketball games played in Stockton. It was just a great experience. We were in awe of the local support."

But St. Joe's was able to remain composed in a hostile environment.

"We had an us-against-the-world mentality," Byrd said. "It was definitely a lot of fun."

St. Joe's lost its next game and was eliminated from the playoffs.

Griffin, 36, works for NetSuite in Oakland and lives in San Ramon with his wife and their two children. Ruiz, 37, lives in Napa with his wife and their two kids, and teaches math and coaches baseball at Vacaville High. Gustorf retired from coaching after 29 years in 2002 and still teaches at St. Mary's. Byrd is an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of San Francisco.